“You can hear it in his voice,” Khaleed said. “He wants to do this, and he sounds good. You can be a basketball player and a rapper. We’re all human.”

Lillard—who goes by Dame D.O.L.L.A. when he’s in the studio or onstage—has released a number of tracks on SoundCloud over the years. The Trail Blazers point guard says he uses music “as an outlet to connect with people and paint pictures of my experiences growing up in Oakland.” That’s something Khaleed says comes through in his rhymes.

“I knew to take it serious because passionately, he’s in it,” Khaled said. “He’s talking real rap. The rhymes that he was talking about is where he come from, the environment around where he’s from, you know what I’m saying? So you can tell this is some real rapping.”

Khaled is all over the place these days, releasing his own line of cocoa butter and starring in tax commercials. So why not join the crew on NBA Countdown and chat about Dame’s music career? Either way, it’s nice he stood up for one of the better rapper/basketball players out there. Maybe game does recognize game.